California Court of Appeal

In this case, on remand after vacating as directed a 1999 default judgment in favor of plaintiff law firm for unpaid fees, costs, and attorney fees incurred in enforcement efforts, the matter proceeded to arbitration and the arbitrators determined that defendant had already repaid his contractual debt to plaintiff, including interest, prior to arbitration. Judgment was entered in favor of defendant, awarding plaintiff no relief on any of its claims, but on the parties' cross-motions to be determined the prevailing party, the court ruled that plaintiff was the prevailing party for purposes of both costs and contractual attorney fees, and awarded plaintiff more than $1 million in attorney fees. The prevailing party judgment is reversed, where, as a matter of law, defendant is the prevailing party on the contract within the meaning of Civil Code section 1717, and thus is the only party with a right to recover attorney fees.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/14/2014
• Published 11/14/2014

Judges

• Rothschild

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel